Accession Convention

Judgment of the Court; 9 October 1997; Elsbeth Freifrau von Horn v Kevin Cinnamond; in Case C-163/95

Article 29(1) of the Convention of 26 May 1989 on the Accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic to the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters must be interpreted as meaning that where proceedings involving the same cause of action and between the same parties are pending in two different Contracting States, the first proceedings having been brought before the date of entry into force of the Brussels Convention between those States and the second proceedings after that date, the court second seised must apply Article 21 of the latter Convention if the court first seised has assumed jurisdiction on the basis of a rule which accords with the provisions of Title II of that Convention or with the provisions of a convention which was in force between the two States concerned when the proceedings were instituted, and must do so provisionally if the court first seised has not yet ruled on whether it has jurisdiction. On the other hand, the court second seised must not apply Article 21 of the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters if the court first seised has assumed jurisdiction on the basis of a rule which does not accord with the provisions of Title II of that Convention or with the provisions of a convention which was in force between those two States when the proceedings were instituted.